New Year, New You, and a New Financial Game Plan for Your Business

The calendar has turned and 2019 has officially arrived! With that we’re all dusting off our running shoes and saying sayonara to a couple of those not so great habits that have tagged us for a while. While we love the way the new year has our brains fully targeting personal growth and transformation, might we also suggest a resolution that should take the podium of your professional aspirations? The preparation of your financial plan for the next 12-36 months.

Success is no accident. As Bobby Unser once said, ”Success is where preparation and the line of opportunity meet”. So let’s take positive action together, and focus on three key questions you can ask right now to ensure preparation extends its hand to opportunity.

Where are We Today?

Any discussion around goals and game planning for tomorrow begins with where we are today. Rather than rely on gut or instinct, let your company data define the terms of your starting point. Questions to consider as you start mining the data:

  1. Where are we from a revenue and run-rate perspective? How much revenue do we currently have contracted for the fiscal 2019 year?
  2. Are gross margins aligned to industry standards and posturing your business for go-forward scale? If not, consider what pricing strategy or cost inefficiencies might be driving the delta between the business reality and aspirations.
  3. What’s my cash position and how healthy is my cash flow? Cash is king, and one facet of scale that no resolution can change is its dependency on cash. So make sure you understand how to best increase its flow.

Where do We Want to be Tomorrow?

With a better understanding of where we are today, we can now more effectively define our goals of success for tomorrow. We all have a whiteboard of opportunity in front of us and it’s up to you to grab the markers and get to populating. Approach this comprehensively, considering items not from a revenue and profit perspective alone, but also employee growth and development, community impact, etc. Once you have begun to define that vision of success for the next 12-36 months, begin to work backward and specify the milestones that need to be targeted and the dates you’d need to surpass for achievement.

What Do We Need to Get There?

The fun really begins when you can take the realities of today and the aspirations of tomorrow and define the path between the two. Below are some questions you might initially begin to address:

  1. Do I have systems and processes in place that are simple, scalable and repeatable? If not, where are my inefficiencies and what can I bolt on from either a process improvement or technology solution to help streamline and automate?
  2. Do I have the right resources in place to execute against my vision? If not, where are the gaps and how do I best address or supplement?
  3. Capital – how much capital is my growth plan going to require? Once quantified, where is that dollar amount going to come from? If not organically fed through customer acquisition, it might be time to polish off your investable story and determine if outside capital is a plausible scenario

The answers to these questions will help you not only define go-forward success for your company but enable you to confidently take the first steps toward achievement. With that, we say cheers to 2019 and look out 2020 – there’s a new you coming your way, running shoes and financial game plan fully in tow.